Maori Party support firms up in Waiariki electorate

Support for Te Ururoa Flavell and the Maori Party in the Waiariki electorate has firmed up three months after he replaced Pita Sharples as Co-leader in July, a Te Karere DigiPoll has found.

The recent poll of 500 Maori roll voters found support for Mr Flavell as the Maori Party's candidate was 43 per cent against his election night result of just under 40 per cent in 2011.

Seventeen per cent of respondents said they would vote for Labour's candidate which was Louis Te Kani in 2011 and just eight per cent said they would vote for the Mana Party candidate which was Annette Sykes at the last election.

Mr Te Kani and Ms Sykes received 23 per cent and 29 per cent of the vote respectively at the last election.

Asked which party they would vote for, 35 per cent chose the Maori Party, well up on the 21 per cent received in 2011. Labour's support in the poll was at 29 per cent while that for Mana was just six per cent, behind the Greens at eight per cent.

In the 2011 election, Mana secured 16 per cent of the party vote in Waiariki.

Seventy five per cent of respondents said it was "a good thing" that Mr Flavell was now co-leader, compared with just six per cent who said it was a bad thing.

His performance as Waiariki MP was rated as "fantastic" by 20 per cent of respondents and "above average" by a further 39 per cent. Thirty per cent said his performance was average and just one per cent said he had been below average.